The “humanoid” carp are attracting attention in the town of Chongju in the centre of the country where they live in a small pond.
They are believed to be hybrid descendants of two carp species – the carp and the leather carp, also known as a tangerine fish.
Both fish are females and more than three feet long. They appear to have distinctive human noses, eyes and lips.
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Within your circle of friends and acquaintances, you probably know some doctors, some lawyers, some artists, and maybe even an actor or a professional athlete. But chances are you don’t know any international arms dealers. What the arms dealer does is pretty straightforward: He sells arms. But there are obviously plenty of aspects of this profession that remain hidden to most. Here are five of them.
1- Dealing arms isn’t illegal
Believe it or not, dealing in private arms is a perfectly legal profession in most countries. In fact, few countries have any laws at all that forbid brokering an illegal arms deal. Remember; the broker is usually nothing more than a middleman with a phone, a computer and a bank account. When arms dealers do find themselves in trouble, it is often when they run afoul of international law by engaging in high-profit, illegal transactions. In these instances, it is not specific arms-dealing laws that are being broken, but rather import and export laws, or U.N. sanctions that are being circumvented.
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Just because some ammunition is made for practice doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous. For decades, soldiers in training have fired explosives like the M918 40 mm shell, which is less powerful than battlefield munitions, but still explodes to simulate the “bang” of a real round. However, a few of those old-style munitions—about 3 to 8 percent of current shells according to the Department of Defense—are duds that get stuck in the ground without exploding, creating a cleanup nightmare for the military. The Wall Street Journal reports that the bill to clean up all 10 million acres on 1,400 different sites containing unexploded shells could cost about $20 billion. To skirt such pricey clean-ups, the military is turning to a new idea: Green training ammunition.
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Megan Fox is ditching the robots and taking her career to Western and underwater frontiers.
Fox is in final negotiations to star opposite Josh Brolin and John Malkovich in “Jonah Hex,” Warner Bros.’ action Western based on the DC Comics character. She also is attached to star and develop “Fathom,” Fox Atomic’s comic book-based underwater adventure.
In “Hex,” being directed by Jimmy Hayward, Fox will play Leila, a gun-wielding beauty and love interest of Hex (Brolin), a scarred bounty hunter tracking a voodoo practitioner (Malkovich) who wants to raise an army of undead to liberate the South.
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A Duluth man is behind bars after allegedly stealing a car and repeatedly calling 911 to brag to police that they would not catch him.
Police say the 23-year-old man stole gas from a gas station late Friday, then fled in a car he allegedly stole earlier in the night.
A police officer spotted the stolen car about 2 a.m. Friday and chased the man, who crashed into a guardrail but then turned off his lights and sped away. Police soon found the car abandoned.
Shortly after that, the man allegedly began calling 911 from a cell phone and telling dispatchers he would not be caught because he was “smarter than the police.”
But about two hours later, a man called 911 to report a prowler at his home.
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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The recession tightened its grip on U.S. businesses and consumers in February, according to economists, who are predicting the largest one-month job loss in almost 60 years.
“Pink slips continue to fly,” said Meny Grauman, an economist for CIBC World Markets.
With output still falling at a dizzying rate, most companies are shedding unneeded workers and cutting back the hours of those remaining. Strapped by debt and seeing their paper wealth evaporating, many consumers are spending as little as they can.
“The economic patient is still in critical condition, with little medication to relieve the pain,” wrote economists Brian Bethune and Nigel Gault of IHS Global Insight. “We will have to bite the bullet.”
The first week of the new month brings two of the most important economic indicators: the ISM index and the nonfarm payrolls report. Both are expected to be very grim news.
Little joy in manufacturing data
First, on Monday, the Institute for Supply Management reports back from purchasing managers at manufacturing firms across the nation.
Although few people outside of the financial markets or the economics profession know what it is, the ISM is probably the best single leading indicator marking the end of a recession. The ISM is a diffusion index that measures the breadth of economic distress or success across firms. It asks key executives to judge whether business is getting better or worse.
Once the ISM — and especially the new-orders component — turns up decisively, the expansion is typically one to four months away, although in some cases it has turned up as much as a year before the end of a recession.
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“The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.”
- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943
Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of “an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.”
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
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A solar power milestone was reached on Tuesday when First Solar Inc brought its manufacturing costs for solar panels down to $1 per watt. But a study from the University of California and Lawrence Berkeley National Labs suggests that this might be the bottom for a price-point—if solar power is ever going to scale up to become competitive with other forms of energy. Here are the new challenges facing the solar industry and some suggestions to make a brighter future.
A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. With comparable costs for standard silicon panels still hovering in the $3 range, it’s tempting to conclude that First Solar’s cadmium telluride (CdTe) technology has won the race. But if we’re concerned about the big picture (scaling up solar until it’s a cheap and ubiquitous antidote to global warming and foreign oil) a forthcoming study from the University of California–Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory suggests that neither material has what it takes compared to lesser-known alternatives such as—we’re not kidding—fool’s gold.
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It was the Butler with the Knife in the Library, right? Well, we get to find out who Hollywood decides to be the killer in everyone’s favorite mystery board game, Clue, as it sounds like it will be back on the big screen. All the talk of Professor Plum and Mrs. Peacock got us thinking about other board games that would make great movies. Do we really need to suffer through another corny remake? Of course not, so here’s some free ideas for all the screen writers out there:
Hippo
Hungry Hippos – If Hollywood can make monsters out of dogs, sharks and alligators, why not hippos? They kill more people worldwide than any other animal. Just imagine a family on an African safari gone bad. Their only hope for escape is feed them the other families in the truck. Hey, It can’t be worse than Anaconda.
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The future of the American auto industry is getting off to a slow start.
The Energy Department has $25 billion to make loans to hasten the arrival of the next generation of automotive technology — electric-powered cars. But no money has been allocated so far, even though the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan program, established in 2007, has received applications from 75 companies, including start-ups as well as the three Detroit automakers.
With General Motors and Chrysler making repeat visits to Washington to ask for bailout money to stave off insolvency, some members of Congress are starting to ask why the Energy Department money is not flowing yet. The loans also are intended to help fulfill President Obama’s campaign promise of putting one million electric cars on American roads by 2015.
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During The Pirate Bay trial, the music industry placed the blame for the decline in their revenues squarely on the shoulders of file-sharers. Their logic is clearly flawed, but it could sway the verdict if no alternative explanation is presented. So, if piracy isn’t to blame, then what is *actually* killing the music industry?
According to Per Sundin, CEO of Universal Music, the decline in music revenues in the past 8 years can be fully attributed to (read: blamed on) illegal file sharing. If this were actually true, many of us might even respect his decision to go after pirates as fiercely as the music industry is doing right now. However, the past 8 years have seen a lot more changes in the landscape of home entertainment than Per Sundin would like to admit, and some of those changes have had a massive impact on music profitability — much more so than any amount of piracy.
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NEW YORK - A rare copy of the Action comic book that launched Superman as the first superhero is coming up for auction.
Comic book expert Stephen Fishler says bidding for the comic book begins at $1 and is sure to go up, up and away. It originally cost 10 cents in 1938.
He says copies of Action Comics No. 1 in “fine” condition are worth about $126,000, but this one could sell for several times that. About 100 copies of the No. 1 edition are known to exist.
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Microsoft could have Windows 7 on shipping PCs by September, Compal president Ray Chen said today at an investor’s conference. The PC contractor executive understands from plans that the software should be available in either late September or early October. The news would corroborate word of an April release candidate that would let Microsoft finish, manufacture and deliver Windows 7 well ahead of the holidays.
Compal builds systems on behalf of Acer, HP and other major PC makers.
Amelia Agrawal, a spokeswoman for Microsoft, maintains the official company position that Windows 7 will be available within three years of when Vista shipped. However, the company’s upgrade program plans and other leaks have increasingly suggested that the public goal, which would put the release in early 2010, is deliberately conservative and meant to avoid embarrassment in the event of an unexpected delay. Microsoft has acknowledged a shortened development track that includes just one public beta and one readily available release candidate before the ship date.
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Interesting way to scare your friends. Not really scary, but it is interesting to have fun!
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Hope they’ve got XXXXL jumpsuits in AZ, ’cause Charles Barkley is officially going to jail.
Barkley just pled guilty to 2 counts of driving under the influence and pleaded “responsible” to running a stop sign for the December 31 incident in Scottsdale.
Barkley was sentenced to 10 days in jail — but will only do five if he completes an alcohol education program. Barkley was also fined $2,000.
Barkley will begin his sentence on March 21 — but it’s unclear if he will serve time in Arizona’s famed Tent City Jail, where they make the inmates wear pink.
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